A Certain Summer

July 8, 2013
It is the summer of 1948 and the place Helen Wadsworth feels safest is on the remote island of Wauregan, where generations of Wadsworths have summered. WWII ended four years earlier, but her husband, Arthur, is still on the "Missing, presumed dead" list. Her son Jack, now 14, pretends his father will be home soon and talks his mom into allowing him to restore Red Wing, their small, long-unused sailboat. In her fiction debut, Beard eloquently illustrates the effects of war on the small community and the hollow lives of returning heroes. On pristine Wauregan happy couples become drunken shells, while Helen waits for her husband to miraculously return. Enter two men: Frank, Arthur's partner in the OSS, Jack's Godfather, and the last person to see Arthur alive; and Peter, a young architect who falls hard for Helen while trying to let go of his own trauma. Peter brings Max, a German Shepard "war-dog" into the mix, and Max and Jack become fast friends. Woven into this tale of loss and romance are themes of intrigue, growth, betrayal, psychological trauma, and a fulfilling healing process. Beard's attention to historical detail and understanding of the realities and short-falls of privilege make this a satisfying beach read.

April 15, 2013
For those wealthy yet modest residents who summer on Wauregan Island, their tranquil, temperate days spent barefoot and relaxed are enough to make them forget the long years of WWII, from which they have finally emerged. But, for Helen, this summer, 1948, is the final one before the government changes her husband's status from missing in action to legally dead. After a traumatized veteran, Peter, and his dog, also a veteran, move into the cottage across from Helen and her son, Jack, Helen finds herself finally able to go in search of answers about her husband. Beard's debut novel contrasts the apparent tranquility of the beach setting with a troubling exploration of PTSD and other effects of war on the human spirit. The writing is occasionally overly earnest in tone, but the deepening relationship between Peter and Helen is portrayed subtly and convincingly. An engaging postwar melodrama.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)